Nitrogen, sulfur dual-doped mesoporous carbon modified glassy carbon electrode for simultaneous determination of hydroquinone and catechol

Lately, intensive studies showed that heteroatom doped porous carbons would contribute efficiently on the performance of novel supercapacitors and electrocatalysts. In view of the few application of dual-heteroatom doped mesoporous carbon as electrode modifier for electroanalysis so far, a nitrogen and sulfur dual-doped mesoporous carbon (N, S-MPC) was fabricated in one step and further applied as electrode component for a simultaneous determination of hydroquinone (HQ) and catechol (CC) in aqueous solution. Owing to the high N, S content, the large surface area, the abundant mesopores as well as the good conductivity of the obtained N, S-MPC, improved sensitivity and selectivity in electrochemical determination of coexisted HQ and CC isomers were achieved at a N, S-MPC modified glassy carbon electrode (N, S-MPC/GCE) in both cyclic voltammetric (CV) and differential pulse voltammetric (DPV) measurements, compared with those at bare glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The electrochemical sensor showed a wide liner range of 1-110 μM for both HQ and CC. The detection limits were about 0.056 μM and 0.209 μM for HQ and CC, respectively. The practical application of the N, S-MPC/GCE in tap water samples analyses with satisfying recoveries implies the proposed sensing platform is promising.